www.theolivepress.es
stars
the olive press - March 19th - April 1st 2015 March 19th - April 1st 2015
www.theolivepress.es
NEWS IN BRIEF
Deluxe development Terry Venables’ managerial venture Just up the coast in Alicante, former England manager Terry Venables is taking on his latest managerial adventure after restoring a 500 acre olive grove into a luxury Spanish hideaway. El Tel opened up to the public in October, with guests paying a tidy €200 per night.
Rick Parfitt’s Alhaurin hideout Hidden away in the hills above the Costa del Sol in Alhaurin, Status Quo rock legend Rick Parfitt can often be found kicking back in his decadent mansion with his wife and twins, Tommy and Lily. With tennis courts, a swimming pool and a garden to rival any horticulturist’s wildest fantasy, Parfitt’s pad is the perfect hideaway.
SOME 400 luxury properties are set to be built in Estepona by developers iKasa. The first 50 homes, costing €300,00 to €600,000, will be ready by 2018.
Cilla’s Estepona eyrie
Shopping spree
The former golden girl of Saturday night TV is pushing 72 but Cilla Black still gets ‘a lorra laughs’ chilling at her luxury Estepona villa. That was until last year when her luxury pad was struck by a fire while the ex Surprise Surprise host was in the UK. Happily, a renovation job looks to have restored the property to its former glory and our Cilla should be back for another date with the coast this summer.
BRITISH investment group INTU Properties is set to invest €450 million in a new shopping and leisure centre in Torremolinos.
and at least one crook...
Russian president Vladimir Putin is wellknown for his admiration of excess and the construction of his Benahavis mansion in the hills above Marbella is no exception. Kitted out with two swimming pools, a cinema and a €1 million wine cellar, Vlad’s pad is one of the most enviable in Andalucia.
Road to recovery SPANISH house prices are climbing faster than they have since 2008. Prices around Spain were up around 0.3% in 2014, comparing to a drop of 10.6% in 2013. Almost 2% more properties sold in the last quarter of 2014 than the previous year.
Villas in vogue
Vlad’s Marbella pad
David Bentley’s Benahavis bolt-hole Once dubbed the ‘next David Beckham’, the former Tottenham and England footballer David Bentley hung up his boots at the age of 29 for a new life on the Costa del Sol. Now involved in a string of hip hangouts including popular La Sala in Puerto Banus, when he’s not socialising with the clientele Bentley can regularly be spotted practising his swing on the golf courses around his beautiful family home in Benahavis (pictured left).
7 25
Gordon Goody’s Mojacar getaway One of the men behind the Great Train Robbery, criminal mastermind Gordon Goody, has gone from bad to the ‘good life’ on a farm in Almeria. While his criminal associates – Ronnie Biggs and Bruce Reynolds (to name just two) – became cult figures in the UK, Goody escaped to Spain to run beach bar Chiringuito Kon Tiki in Mojacar.
FOREIGNERS spent €6.05 billion on homes in Spain in the first nine months of last year, a 30% rise on 2013. Over 40,000 properties were purchased, with most purchases in the regions of Valencia, Andalucia and Catalunya.
Green houses A MAJOR Europe-wide study led by Spanish project co-ordinator Bax and Willems could transform the way housing markets value ‘green’ homes. The ‘Revalue’ project will assess the impact of energy efficiency measures on the valuation of homes.